


Here at the end of all things

by sapphire_child



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst, Bad Wolf Bay, Dark, Epic Love, Episode AU: s02e13 Doomsday, Episode Fix-It: s02e13 Doomsday, Everything is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, F/M, Love Confessions, Manip, Pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-05-06
Updated: 2010-05-06
Packaged: 2019-01-27 23:41:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12593172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sapphire_child/pseuds/sapphire_child
Summary: For their love, they would tear apart the very fabric of time and space.





	Here at the end of all things

**Author's Note:**

> For the "Butters Many Parsnips" Billie Piper Ficathon.
> 
> Prompt: Ten/Rose + next thing, we're touching.
> 
> NB: apologies in advance for the DD-ness but my muse is a psychotic angst-whore who likes making people cry D: if it makes people feel any better maybe we can just say this is a nightmare that one of them had post DD...or we could just hit my muse repeatedly with fluff bunnies :P

She waits for him. On a cold beach in Norway she waits, and even before she sees the ghostly outline of her Doctor she knows he’s there.  
  
He’s inside the TARDIS, burning up a sun just for her. She’s not sure whether to be appalled or flattered by this but mainly she just wants him to be solid and real, in front of her.  
  
She reaches for him, aching for his touch.  
  
“Can I t-?”  
  
He shakes his head and her heart drops. “You can’t touch me.” But then he’s jiggering the sonic again and reaching out a tentative, experimental hand. “But I can touch you, I think.”  
  
When his hand slides against her cheek she gasps softly, tears threatening. His touch is insubstantial, a whisper of skin against hers that she may or may not be imagining.  
  
It’s enough.  
  
He looks at her so tenderly then, like she’s going to shatter beneath his touch and he wants to preserve the memory of her fragile self in his mind’s eye.  
  
“Rose Tyler,” he says softly and then he laughs sadly. “Rose  _Tyler_.”  
  
He brushes his thumb over her cheek and she leans into it, savouring the not-quite-there feel of his hand as she whispers his name in response.  
  
“ _Doctor._ ”  
  
He keeps his hand steady on her cheek a moment longer and then drops it, his smile fading.  
  
“Rose I can bring you back.” He blurts and her throat clenches with excitement. “If you want. But if you decide...if that’s what you want...there’ll be no going back.”  
  
“I understand.” She says quickly. “What do I need to do?”  
  
He pauses uncomfortably, looks away from her. “Well that’s just it. There’s this...thing.”  
  
She frowns. “What thing?”  
  
“If I bring you through then the walls between worlds will shatter. Both universes will collapse. I’m barely able to control it as is. If I come through anymore then the whole thing will just...fracture. Everything ends.”  
  
He says it so matter-of-factly, like he’s just told her he’s thinking of having marmalade on his toast tomorrow instead of jam. The full enormity of his statement takes a while to sink in and Rose is about to concede defeat, to give him up for the sake of the universes (and it’s not fair it’s not fair it’s not  _fair_ ) when he adds, “Rose I need you to really think about this, because if you ask me to do this then I will.”  
  
_Oh._  Now that... _that_  is...well the idea takes her breath away! That he would risk not one universe but  _two_...   
  
Still reeling, she passes a hand through her hair and asks, “How long do I...?”  
  
“Less than two minutes.”  
  
She stares at him, dumbfounded, then laughs. “I dunno what to say!”  
  
He chuckles back, dipping his head, but then he chances a look up and she sees the wistfulness there. The loneliness is back again too, the look he had when they first met.  
  
“If I don’t then you’ll be on your own.” He nods and she runs her hand over her hair again. “And if I do then the universe implodes yeah?”  
  
He nods again and she marvels at this impossible choice – the universe or the Doctor. Even more she marvels at how he’s handballed it to her like it’s nothing. Maybe it isn’t – to him at least. Maybe he’s had to make this choice too many times now and he’s tired of it, or he just doesn’t want the responsibility.  
  
Or maybe he wants her to be the one to say  _fuck it_  and  _what we have is worth the losses_  and  _hold on tight, let's jump, together._  
  
But.  
  
“Doctor,” she begins questioningly and he leans forward to show that he’s listening. “Before I choose I need to ask you something.”  
  
“Anything.”  
  
He says it so easily, like he really will answer. She seizes the chance before he changes his mind.  
  
“I was just wondering...I mean d’you...?”  
  
_If you can’t say it now then you’ll never be able to. Say it say it SAY IT._  
  
“I-” she chokes on a sudden sob and has to fight back tears before she finishes her sentence. “I love you.”

He looks mildly stunned but then his expression darkens even as he smiles. “Quite right too.” He says, glib. Rose is suddenly and irrationally angry.  
  
“No!” she snaps. “No you’re meant to say it  _back_.”  
  
He gapes at her, clueless as always and then she reaches for him, insubstantial and flawed though he might be and then they’re touching,  _really_  touching with mouth pressed to mouth and fingers twining...  
  
At the end of all things (as two universes shudder in protest and reality begins to tear apart at the seams) they are together. And before their very atoms are ripped apart and dissolved into nothingness he puts his lips to the shell of her ear and he whispers,  
  
“I love you too.”

[ ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/155122168@N03/36942866720/in/album-72157688618079026/)


End file.
